The MUltinational Space-based Imaging System for Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Observation (MUSIS) is an international program including

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, aimed at allowing the six nations to share imagery from various military satellites through a common, generic user

ground segment A ground segment consists of all the ground-based elements of a space system used by operators and support personnel, as opposed to the space segment and user segment. The ground segment enables management of a spacecraft, and distribution of p ...

(UGS) according to agreed rules and quota.

Overview

Similar to many category B projects of

European Defence Agency The European Defence Agency (EDA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) that promotes and facilitates integration between member states within the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The EDA is headed by the High Representative ...

(EDA), it is managed by

OCCAR The Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (French: ''Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'ARmement''; OCCAR) is a European intergovernmental organisation that facilitates and manages collaborative armament programmes throug ...

. MUSIS was intended to provide access to a number of missions intended for the 2015 timeframe: * the successor of French Hélios 2 called

Composante Spatiale Optique Composante Spatiale Optique (CSO; English: Optical Space Component) is a French military Earth observation satellite program of third generation. It replaces the Helios 2 satellites. It is sometimes referred to as the MUltinational Space-based ...

(CSO) * the successor of German

SAR-Lupe SAR-Lupe is Germany's first reconnaissance satellite system and is used for military purposes. SAR is an abbreviation for synthetic-aperture radar, and "Lupe" is German for magnifying glass. The SAR-Lupe program consists of five identical (770&nb ...

called

SARah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a piou ...

* the successor of Italian

COSMO-SkyMed COSMO-SkyMed (COnstellation of small Satellites for the Mediterranean basin Observation) is an Earth-observation satellite space-based radar system funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and Ministry of Defence and conducted by the It ...

called COSMO Second Generation (CSG) * the Spanish wide area optical satellite

SEOSat-Ingenio SEOSat-Ingenio (short for Spanish Earth Observation Satellite-Ingenio), was a Spanish project to produce a satellite capable of providing wide-field imagery (230 frames a day, 60 km × 60 km) ensuring a repeat cycle of 38 days at 2.5 ...

(formerly known as Seosat) The two systems mentioned first are entirely military whilst the two latter systems are dual-use.

History

MUSIS was approved in 2006 and studies were launched in order to achieve Initial Operational Capability (IOC) by 2015. MUSIS was supposed to allow mutual access to the - still national - satellite constellations through the generic UGS. The latter would allow the countries involved to share intelligence imagery more easily than is currently possible. After many divisions amongst the nations involved and some calls to cancel the programme, MUSIS has undergone a substantial change. But effectively, during the meeting on 6 May 2010, the programme was essentially terminated. Now, MUSIS has deteriorated to a financial contribution scheme to the French

(CSO) which is the successor of the French Helios 2 programme. MUSIS (a.k.a. CSO) provides a co-funding of CSO and in return offers a percentage no higher than 5% of the optical images that CSO will be able to provide. On 1 July 2010,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

decided to join the MUSIS programme. On 17 December 2010, contracts were awarded for the first two MUSIS satellites, which are the Helios 2 successors. On 17 June 2011, contracts were awarded to Thales España for the optical focal plane arrays for the first two satellites. In October 2011, Sofradir was awarded a contract to provide

HgCdTe Hg1−xCdxTe or mercury cadmium telluride (also cadmium mercury telluride, MCT, MerCad Telluride, MerCadTel, MerCaT or CMT) is a chemical compound of cadmium telluride (CdTe) and mercury telluride (HgTe) with a tunable bandgap spanning the shortwav ...

sensors for the focal planes of the infra-red instruments on those satellites.

References

External links

European Defense Agency Press Release
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musis European space programmes Cancelled projects